Having fruitlessly searched and asked around for a brewer to supply domestic scale beer that could hook up to my pump, I turned last week to a local self-brew shop for advice.

Less than £40 lighter, I came away from Hop & Grape in Darlington with not only a Brubox starter kit that gave me everything I need to brew around 20 pints of Irish Extra Stout, but also a spare 10 litre polythene cube that I could, in theory, allow me to go to any fine pub and buy the beer that can hook up to the pump.

Marvelous. But rather than take that latter easy route, I wanted first to give brewing - albeit by numbers - a try. We all have to start somewhere.

Using the Brubox method, from Brupaks, seems remarkably easy, although I still have some time to go before I can taste the fruits of my brewing.

Everything, including one of those 10 litre cubes, came in the box, at a price of around £27. After sterilising the the cube, it was a simple process of heating the malt to allow it to pour more easily into the cube, and also brewing the bags (think tea bags) of grains and hops and adding the resultigng liquid, following carefully the instructions.

Having added the yeast, the beer has since been fermenting for six days, with another four to go.*

A clearing period of around seven days will follow, after which the beer needs to settle for another couple of days before drinking, so I hope to have my first pint early July.

I'll keep you up to date with progress, but so far so good. Cheers!

*Do NOT follow the instructions as outlined in this blog. Buy the kit and follow them there, as they are more detailed.

Well, it's been a weekend of sunshine, so I thought it was a great opportunity to pick up a couple of light ales to while away my Sunday afternoon.

So, I dropped into my local Aldi, to see what they had and found a couple of Northern golden ales, one from either side of the Pennines.

It's a balanced Sunday afternoon, after all - and, to add to the summer feel, I decided to drink from a plastic glass, festival style.

I started with Cocker Hoop, from Jennings, in the Lake District, and it's perfect for a warm day, as well as for anyone wanting to take a step into beer from lager drinking. In fact, Cocker Hoop is probably as close to a lager as you're going to get (but I won't hold that against it).

A light, easy drink, it's an ideal pint to quench the thirst before moving on to something that is a darker gold, with a fuller flavour.

Ahop-alypse Now is a "hop" across the Pennines to the North East of England and Hartlepool's Camerons Brewery.

All in all, golden ales are great for the warmer summer days and an ideal "in" for people wanting to get into ale. It's just a shame that the forecast suggests a turn for the worst, in terms of weather.

Author

I’m 42, I don’t have a beard (partly because when I try it is patchy, has gaps, with ginger and grey bits) and don’t take a clipboard to the pub. So, I’m not the stereotypical real ale fan of old, in the style that I was always told to look out for...read more